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Registered medical marijuana patients in New Jersey call on New Jersey legislators and Governor-elect Phil Murphy to allow home cultivation of cannabis

Caregivers and patients were expecting home gardens until the provision was removed in 2009 from the Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Act. Now, almost a decade later, the promises of a robust medical marijuana program is broken.

Home Cultivation is STILL needed for three reasons:

1) Cost - the cost of medical marijuana exceeds half the income of the 50% of patients who are on disability;

2) Consistent supply - many patients need specific strains for their conditions, but the dispensaries have trouble maintaining their supplies, often dropping production of the most effective strains;

3) Empowerment - allowing patients to grow their own medicine lets them take control of their disease.

The recreational marijuana bill that Senator Scutari may be introducing today will likely make the medical strain supply issue worst, to the detriment of patients. Home cultivation is one way of alleviating this issue.

Ken Wolski RN, Executive Director of CMMNJ, stated, “Home cultivation empowers patients to take charge of their own healthcare, to grow their own medicine for pennies and to choose the specific strains that best helps their medical conditions.”

Peter Rosenfeld of CMMNJ added, “As New Jersey moves on to full legalization of marijuana, we want our legislators and Governor-elect Murphy to consider the needs of our state's medical marijuana patients.”

CMMNJ is encouraged by Sen. Nick Scutari's bold introduction of a bill for full legalization of cannabis for adult use in New Jersey. We also recognize the efforts of Asm. Reed Gusciora and Asm Michael Patrick Carroll with their bills to reform New Jersey's laws regarding adult social use of cannabis. CMMNJ supports legalization to help anyone who can benefit from cannabis to get safe, affordable access and to reduce the harms associated with prosecution and incarceration due to outdated drug laws. However, we believe the current bill does not go far enough to correct the wrongs of cannabis prohibition. It does not go far enough to ensure safe, legal, affordable access to all who can benefit from cannabis therapy. It does not go far enough to ensure full participation in the cannabis industry by the people most harmed by unfair drug laws.

In our near decade of trying to expand and improve our compassionate use program under CUMMA, we have encountered many obstacles that cause needless suffering for patients and caregivers. We understand, for example, that removing home cultivation was a necessary step in order to get Governor Corzine to sign the bill into law. Let’s just say we have learned from those “missteps”, and we, CMMNJ, are not in the habit of being duped twice. We hope these same missteps will not be repeated under a legalization framework. In fact, we believe some of these problems can be corrected immediately by amending the current law:

· Eliminate the 7% tax on medical marijuana;

· Restore home cultivation that was called for in the original legislation (S119/A804) and approved by the New Jersey Senate in 2009; and,

· Reschedule marijuana to a more appropriate schedule that acknowledges marijuana’s accepted medical uses in the United States, its safety profile, and its low addiction potential.

These changes to correct errors in the current law can be enacted immediately. These changes should also be carried forward into any plans for legalization to ensure fair and equitable access for all. Efforts to legalize cannabis in New Jersey must keep patients and caregivers in mind. Patients, especially pediatric patients and their caregivers, already face significant burdens to access and afford cannabis. Many who could benefit from cannabis are cruelly excluded due to the bureaucratic limitations that allow only certain conditions to "qualify" and impose additional costs on patients already struggling with affording their medical bills. Legalization holds promise to improve our medical program if implemented responsibly and compassionately.

A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 22 before a panel of eight doctors, pharmacists, and nurses who were appointed by Health Commissioner Cathleen Bennett nearly one year ago. People who submitted petitions to the panel last summer will be invited to testify starting at 10 a.m. at the War Memorial, 1 Memorial Dr., Trenton